


Training

by illyrian_bitch_queen



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: F/M, Magic, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 02:58:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9414935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illyrian_bitch_queen/pseuds/illyrian_bitch_queen
Summary: Feyre's magic isn't progressing as quickly as Rhys hoped. He decides to tackle her training in a different way.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr user @feysand17 asked for Feyre and Rhys training/fighting, so here this is :)

I had a love/hate relationship with training.

Typically, when it came to training, I spent more time with Cassian than Rhys. Cassian and I still trained with weapons and fists nearly every day, improving my skills greatly. At this point, I was pretty confident that I could take down most high fae males, although certainly not any of the three well-trained Illyrian warriors I surrounded myself with. Regardless, it was still incredible improvement, having started with just a knack for survival and now reaching a true skill and knowledge in fighting.

I was definitely improving physically, but my magic hadn’t progressed much since the war ended.

Rhys and I had admittedly become pretty lax on training my rather out of control magic. We usually ended up doing much more kissing and, honestly fucking, than training, despite our best efforts to remain focused. Okay, maybe not our _best_ efforts. But we did put at least some effort into it. I was still learning. We just weren’t exactly making leaps and bounds.

After Amren had walked in on our ‘training’ not once or twice, but three times, she declared that the two of us needed a chaperone if I was ever to learn as much as I was capable of.

Training, after that, became much, much less enjoyable. Now that one of our inner circle members was always at our training sessions, we were able to focus more easily, but we also ended up growing more agitated with each other than we had in awhile. We never got truly angry with each other, but there was some gritting teeth and rolling eyes pretty frequently.

Rhys usually got under my skin simply by asking me to do things he _knew_ I wasn’t capable of doing. He knew how much it pissed me off that I couldn’t prove him wrong–or right, rather, since he would sit there for an hour and tell me that there was no reason I couldn’t say, _freeze the entire fucking river_ that flowed through Velaris, even though he was perfectly aware I couldn’t do anything of that magnitude yet.

“Well, if High Lord Kallias could do it, and you have his power, I don’t understand why you can’t do it.”

_Well, maybe because I haven’t had fucking centuries to learn to master my Winter Court magic like he has._

I clenched my fists to contain shadowy talons at the casual challenge. He wasn’t even _looking_  at me. He was reading a book. As I glowered at him, he flipped a page, not moving his eyes from the lines of text. We were several feet away from each other, seated on the grass behind the townhouse in Velaris. He had brought out a book yesterday, stating that if I didn’t do anything interesting, he might as well find a way to entertain himself. I growled low in my throat as he flipped another page. 

If I didn’t know him so well, I wouldn’t have noticed the way his lips tightened to keep a smile at bay. But I knew him better than I knew anyone, and the expression just pissed me off more.

“Dammit, Rhys, if you don’t look up from that _fucking book_.”

Rhys raised his eyes in well-faked shock. “By the cauldron, Feyre. Watch your temper. And your mouth as well.”

I bared my teeth at him. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was trying to make me lose my temper. What I didn’t understand, was why.

For two weeks, he had been pushing me in a way that brought me closer and closer to shoving him off a cliff with his wings bound.

I would catch him, of course. I’d just let him fall for a bit first. It would build character.

I allowed the thought to slip through my shields and to his. He barked out a short laugh.. “Violence doesn’t suit you, Feyre Darling.”

Cassian snorted from where he was lying a few feet away. He was sprawled out on his back, obviously taking his job as a chaperone very seriously. In truth, he found it about as silly as we did. “Please, Feyre is more violent than most Illyrians,” he scoffed. “ _She_  scares _them_.”

I huffed. “I _should_ scare them. I’m their High Lady and I could have them on their asses in seconds.” He lifted his head to raise an eyebrow at me, and I amended what I’d said. “Alright, if I’m fighting them with my magic, I could kick their asses.”

He shrugged in agreement and dropped his head back, slinging an arm over his eyes. There weren’t many people who could hold their own against me if I was using my magic. I had so much of it and so many different varieties that it was pretty hard to have any idea of how to counter all of them, even if I didn’t have as much control over it as I should by now.

I turned back to Rhys, who was frowning ever so slightly. “Well, you’re learning to fight physically about as quickly as you’re learning to use your magic then, if Cassian still doesn’t think you could take the Illyrians.”

I clenched my jaw at the exaggeration as Cassian raised a hand, pointing to Rhys. “Do not bring me into this. When she snaps, I don’t want her coming after me.”

I gritted my teeth, too annoyed to even bother responding to Cassian’s comment. I could fight off most Illyrian warriors just using physical means. But I could never compare to their unique skills and brutality, earned by years of suffering in those damn mountains. Cassian would _never_ be as rough with me as the Illyrians in the camps were, and my skills would always be a little different because of it. Rhys knew that, short of dropping me in a war camp, there was no way I could fight like he and Cassian and Azriel do. But he was being a prick about it anyway. I’d had enough, honestly.

“Rhys, I’m serious now. You’re pissing me off.”

Rhys’ eyes narrowed and I saw Cassian sit up, looking between us more seriously now.

“Feyre, you have gotten nowhere in your training, any time in the past at all, until I piss you off. Remember how you learned to shield your mind? Remember how I had to shift through your memories to get you to protect yourself?” He leaned forward, discarding his book to the side. “Do you remember how you learned to winnow? After I pissed you off by using you to draw out the Attor?”

“Rhys…” Cassian murmured warningly.

He knew the look in my eyes, but so did Rhys. He knew what he was doing. He was right, of course. _Then_ , pissing me off was necessary for me to try. _Now_ , I liked to think that we were a past petty motivations like that.

I kept my hands clenched, refusing to reveal the claws that were growing from the tips of my fingers, even as they dug into my palm, threatening to break skin. I would not prove Rhysand right about this. I would not learn to do _anything_  just because I was mad. I was past that.

So I just stared at him, forcing my rage to cool, relaxing my fingers when the claws retracted. Rhys sighed, dropping his false arrogance in a moment and meetings my eyes solemnly.

“Dammit, Feyre. I don’t want you to be pissed at me. Not really. I just want you to _try_.”

I huffed in irritation. “I _am_  trying, Rhys. It’s just impossible to learn all this magic so quickly.”

I saw Rhys hesitate, as though trying to bite his tongue. He should’ve tried harder.

“I would assume that, since you’re trying as hard as you can, that you’ve reached the limit of your powers. Which is disappointing, since that would mean you’ll always be massively less powerful than I am.”

“ _Oh no_.” I wasn’t sure if it was Cassian or I that said it. It didn’t really matter, either way.

Every muscle in my body tensed, immediately ready to make him eat his words. My eyes adjusted, my vision strengthening as I focused on every part of Rhys’ body at once. I saw the shift in him as he realized what I was about to do, but he moved too late.

My hands unfisted as I flung them in his direction, unfurling my magic with the first thought that came to me. He loved my water wolves so much, he could just _fight one_.

We were both to our feet before the wolf had finished a single stride. But it only took two for its powerful legs to bring it up to my mate, where it launched itself at him.

He stepped aside in the blink of an eye, narrowly missing its snapping jaws. He narrowed his eyes in thought, even as he grinned at the challenge.

He didn’t seem to have a plan to fight the wolf as it prowled before him, but he still grinned over it at me. “This isn’t anything I haven’t seen before, Feyre.”

I swore at him and moved myself, my fingers extending into wicked talons to match his. The wolf jumped and Rhys stood his ground this time, reaching out to swipe at it experimentally with his shadowy talons. They ripped the wolf out of form, but the water still hit him hard enough to make him stumble back a step.

Before he could get his balance properly, I clenched my fist in towards me and the water froze on him, chilling his skin and hindering his movements for just long enough that I could get close to him. I struck a leg out towards his lower legs, intending to knock him to the ground, but swept it back when I remembered his bad knee and swung around to go for his unprotected side instead.

He growled, even as he moved away, his eyes flickering to mine. “Don’t hold back. You won’t hurt me, I promise.”

I bared my teeth. “If you think I can’t hurt you, you’re going to be pretty shocked in a few minutes.”

His lips twisted into a wicked smirk. “ _Prove it_.”

He lunged directly for me, but I saw the trick for what it was. He wanted me to shift to the side so that he could move behind me and pin my arms back. Cassian had fooled me with the manoeuvre enough times when we were training that I knew better. I let him come at me and only knelt down, tucking my head in at last second.

Suddenly without a target, he tried to stop his forward momentum, but I moved forward, wrapping my arms around his legs at the knees and throwing myself to the ground behind him to ensure he fell, rolling out of the way just as his back hit the ground.

He swore colorfully, even as he sprung into a crouch, too fast for me to decide how to pin him down.

I danced back carefully as he stood, his eyes locked on my center, trying to determine how I would move in the next few minutes. But I was done playing with our bodies. He would overcome me soon if I relied on my physical abilities. He’d had five centuries of training. I had about five years.

But he didn’t have all of the magic that I did.

So, when he shifted his weight towards me, I struck out with a hand towards his feet. Flames licked down my fingers, flung onto the ground centimeters from his boots. He continued moving forward, leaping over the flames instead, rolling to the ground smoothly to redirect the strength he’d coiled in his upper body. He was close enough now that I felt unsure of my abilities, and I took a step back, winnowing away just as his arms would have wrapped around my waist, taking me down to the ground.

I reappeared a few steps behind him and twisted my hands at the wrist as he turned towards me, pulling the water down from the clouds above us, forming it into large spheres just out of sight.

Rhys’ eyes narrowed on my circling hands. He wasn’t sure what I was doing, I could tell, but he knew to fear it.

Suddenly, he brought his arms up, in a half circle, and the last thing I saw was his hands coming together.

I heard someone cursing as darkness swelled over us, blinding me. I lost my focus, my control of the water breaking, and I heard it splash to the ground like someones had just dumped a bucket on the grass. Grimacing, I forced myself to slow my breaths, stilling as I listened for any movement. There was an excess of it to the side, which made me certain that it wasn’t Rhys. He would be as silent as I was right now.

Cassian was still here then. I could vaguely hear him yelling something at the two of us, but I blocked him out to focus more on the silence than his mouth running.

I spread my feet a bit wider, waiting for Rhys to make his move.

I had a split second’s warning before he was on me, his arm weaving behind one of mine, his other arm reaching for my free one. I twisted, but he gripped my arm harder, holding me still. I growled, heat building under my skin.

I welcomed it, and directed the flames to my right arm where he held me. He released me as the smell of burning cloth–but not skin, I wouldn’t allow my power to surge enough to burn him–stung my nose. I jumped away, brushing off the fabric that had been burned away on my arm. My thoughts steadied then, and I brought my own darkness into the mix, swirling it into his where he wouldn’t be able to notice it. I used it to feel for him. It didn’t take long, and soon my darkness detected him a few feet behind me. He had circled around to try and catch me off guard again.

I stayed still, allowing him to approach. Now that I knew where he was, I was ready for him. Just as he lunged at me, a leg going for the back of my knees, I jumped.

I hit the ground deliberately on my back as he reached for where I would have fallen to my knees had I not felt his presence and jumped. I shot my arm out, pulling on my shapeshifting abilities to put a little extra muscle into the limb.

It was enough that when I grabbed his far ankle and tugged hard, his foot came out from under him, my arm swiping across the back of his other leg and taking that one out as well. He hit the ground beside me with a huff, and I was on him in a second, my knees on either side of his ribs, my forearm against his throat, skin just hot enough to remind him that I could summon fire at a moment’s notice.

He let out a deep chuckle before we were suddenly standing. The prick had winnowed a step away and taken my momentary disorientation as an opportunity to bring us both to our feet, his hands gripping my wrists behind my back, my front pressed against his.

His darkness fought mine as I tried to break his hold. My breath came in pants as I tried to focus on our physical fight at the same time that I tried to rally my darkness against his. But he had five hundred years of learning to control his darkness, and mine was weak in comparison. His body was stronger as well, holding me caged in his arms. I growled in frustration as I tried to move my arms out of his hold. I felt his lips touch the skin of my neck, his breath hot and panting as he whispered against my skin.

“I told you I was more powerful than you,” he taunted.

I gritted my teeth, surging my darkness against his once again. It did nothing, and I could feel the strength of it waning. Then something else occurred to me.

Yes, he’d had centuries to train with his darkness. But he hadn’t had a single day of training with the light I was capable of conjuring.

Without my hands, it was harder to control my magic, but not impossible.

I spared a bit of my mind’s focus to direct the light out from my skin, pushing it against my mate’s darkness until I could see again, see his violet eyes so close to mine, sparkling with the joy of having a true challenge for possibly the first time in centuries. Well, other than Amren. But I knew that she didn’t like to play with Rhys like I did.

I grinned back at him for a moment before pulling on a different kind of magic.

He released me out of shock and took a few steps back as he was suddenly holding onto not my arms, but the muscled limbs of a rather large wildcat. I dropped to the ground, my body feeling odd and out of balance.

Everything looked different, and I no longer needed my light to see his form a few feet away. It was the first time I had shifted my entire body. I had always stuck to minor changes–wings, hair color changes to amuse Mor, claws and a bit of extra muscle when I needed it–but I had never done something like this. Rhys laughed in pure exhilaration now as he looked at me. “Now _that_  is new!”

I wanted to grin, but my face moved differently in this body and all I managed to do was bare my teeth.

Everything felt out of sync in this body, and I was reminded of the first few weeks in my new fae body. When I moved my shoulder muscles, I expected my arm to raise, but instead my shoulder joint moved upwards, a sleek front leg moving forward. When I stepped forward, it was disorienting to my mind, so used to being much taller and, well, upright, that it was just wrong to be moving like this. It was like crawling on my hands and knees, but they bent in reverse to how they usually would. I didn’t have the time to try and understand how to control this body. 

I shifted back with barely any effort, sighing at the feeling of settling back into my own body. Rhys had pulled back his darkness, but it swirled around him protectively now. His eyes were sparkling.

“You know, you might be a challenge if you learned to master changes like that. But considering you’ve done all you can…”

I bared my sharpened canines at the taunt. He moved forward quickly, without warning, and I struck a hand out, palm towards where he was about to be, and drew water up from deep within the soil. A puddle formed right as he placed his feet down, and an upward swipe of my hand brought it up over his boots. Bringing my fingers into my palm made the water freeze, encasing his feet in a thick cage of ice. He tugged against it with a frown, making the ice groan but not crack.

I took the opportunity to attack, but found myself incapable of moving my legs. I looked down, but saw nothing holding me back. I just _couldn’t make them move_.

I raised my eyes to Rhys, just as I realized that I had allowed my mental shields to fall after I’d shifted into the wild cat’s body. I swore violently as I felt him in my mind, taking control of part of my body.

I closed my eyes for a moment, focusing on the intrusion in my mind. Once I pinpointed exactly where he held control, I used my old trick, sending an icy wave through my mind, aimed directly at the feeling of him. Although he flinched at my attempt, he wasn’t washed from my mind as he had been before, when I was first learning to shield. He wasn’t giving up this time.

I growled. Then I thought up a new kind of trick.

I slammed my walls up into place while Rhys was still lodged in my mind.

_Sometimes a daemati will leave their mind wide open, just to trap you._

I grinned as I opened my eyes, seeing Rhys’ widen as he tried to pull back, hitting the thick black walls I had protected my mind with for years now. It was strong and thorough. He’d have a hell of a time trying to get through them, to get in or out.

I focused again on my mind, forcing up new walls, ones I had never had a use for before. They were strong, but not as durable as the original ones. Still, they were enough to trap him in one place for a moment, to keep him from forcing me to release him by wreaking havoc on my mind.

I stepped towards him as I still held him in place with my ice. His eyes watched me, but they were out of focus, more concerned with the memories I was distracting him with than my approach.

The memories were good ones. I couldn’t find it in myself to trap him if it wasn’t at least a little pleasant, just like I knew he wasn’t allowing himself to _really_  grip my mind, like he had those years ago when he had sunk his claws into my mind in the Spring Court. We cared too much for each other to do really try and hurt the other. His grip was loose and my trap was pleasant, and we had silently agreed that neither would go any farther.

He was seeing the last Starfall we had attended together. We had danced all night with each other and our friends. I could see his lips turning up despite how he knew he was trapped.

When I melted the ice on his feet and brought him to the ground carefully, pinning him down once again, he barely reacted and didn’t fight at all.

I was confident in my victory for only a second before he had slipped through the walls I’d built. I cried out in surprise as he suddenly pulled out of my mind through a crack I hadn’t noticed him making.

He had me on my back in a moment, his weight holding my hips down, knees pressing into the grass by my waist, hands gripping mine, pinning them above my head.

I met his eyes and laughed breathily. He smiled at me, not taunting now, but genuine. His hair was sticking up everywhere, some pieces falling into his eyes, his clothes out of place and torn or burnt occasionally. He leaned down, his eyes slipping shut just before he pressed his lips to mine.

But I wasn’t ready to accept defeat just because he’d dressed it up with a pretty smile and a kiss.

I shifted my knees up so they brushed his sides. He deepened the kiss, and I figured he’d assumed that I had lost my fight. But apparently he knew me better than that, because when I abruptly surged my body up with all the power in my legs and shoulders, he grunted but stayed on top of me, bracing one of his hands against the ground and pulling away from my lips with a breathy chuckle.

“Do you really think that I’d believe you gave up so easily? I’d like to think I know you better.”

I growled playfully and twisted my hands under his grip–he was now holding both of my wrists with just one hand–so that my fingertips could brush the sensitive skin on the underside of his wrist.  He raised a brow. “I’m not falling for it, Feyre.”

I pouted for a full thirty seconds, but Rhys just looked at me in amusement. I finally scoffed, narrowing my eyes. “You’re a prick, you know that?”

He grinned. “I think I’ve heard that a few times from some girl. She’s beautiful, but a sore loser.” I grinned.

“Huh. She sound like me, except for one thing.”

Rhys cocked his head to the side curiously, a coy smile playing at his lips and lightening his eyes. “Oh?”

I lifted my head up so my lips brushed his when I spoke. “I’m not any kind of loser.”

And then, the water I had subtly allowed to build on my skin under his grip, under the guise of sweat, froze. It was impossible for him to keep a tight grip on my wrists when they were encased in ice, and I tore my hands free easily. He tried to reach for me, but I had my hands at his sides in moments, gripping his hip bones and flipping him off of me. He rolled away for a moment before finding his feet with a disbelieving look.

I grinned, and we were back at it.

Both of us were so prideful that we refused to give up, even when we were faced with each other. Either way, nobody would be offended. We were both confident enough to know that we were strong, powerful, and skilled. And we both recognized that we were just about evenly matched. But it was the principle of conceding to defeat that irked us. Neither of us wanted to be the one to say we’d called for a truce.

In the end, neither of us had to call for a cease-fire.

Amren did it for us.

I had just thrown myself back at Rhys for what felt like the hundredth time, my claws outstretched (although dulled quite a bit compared to usual) and teeth bared, when I was suddenly send hurtling away from him, hitting the ground on my shoulder roughly enough to tear grass up from the roots.

I was frozen in shock and confusion for a moment. When I looked up to see what had changed in Rhys, considering we’d been fighting rather playfully until then, I saw that he was on the ground as well on the opposite side of the yard we’d been practising in. But he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking up towards the townhouse with raised brows.

When he turned back to me, he was laughing. Taking in his reaction, as well as the grass and dirt covering him like a second skin, I began to laugh as well.

“What the absolute hell are you two doing?”

I glanced up, my lips still curved up in a silly smile. Amren was glowering between Rhys and I, her silver eyes flashing like twin daggers in the sun. I grinned at her when she looked at me and she just cocked her head, hands on her hips expectantly. I laughed again.

“This is not funny, you fools. You’re just about tearing each other apart–”

“Amren, we were just _playing_ ,” I said, sitting up now that she didn’t seem to have an inclination of tossing us again.

She glared harder at me. “If that’s your fucking idea of foreplay–”

“That is so not what I meant,” I interrupted. Amren’s eyes darkened as I cut her off and I shrunk back a bit, flashing an apology with my eyes to try and keep her offense to a minimum. She continued to scowl.

“Cassian interrupted _my_ peaceful day to come and plead with me to break you two up, because he had absolutely no idea how to.”

I raised a brow across the yard to Rhys, whose  eyes flashed in the same realization I had just come to. _That_ was why Cassian hadn’t interrupted us when we stopped fighting and started kissing earlier. I had completely forgotten about him.

Amren pointed a finger at me, her nails black, pointed, and glossy. “He said that _you_  were positively pissed at Rhys and that _you_ ,” she hissed, spinning to face her High Lord, “were egging her on, trying to get her to attack you. You damned fool. She’s your mate, not your sparring partner.”

Rhys just grinned at her, not even bothering to lift himself off the ground. He just flopped over carelessly onto his back. “Oh please, you know how much I enjoy riling Feyre Darling up.”

I laughed, but Amren was less than amused still. “You two are incredible.”

“I know I am.”

I didn’t know who was most surprised out of the three of us that the words came out of not only Rhys, but me as well, at the same time exactly.

Amren just closed her eyes, heaving a heavy sigh. “I hate both of you.”

She glared at me. “You’re so much like him it’s painful.” Then she glanced at Rhys. “And you need to stop fucking rubbing off on her. She was tolerable before she started taking after you.”

Both of us just grinned and he shot me a wink when Amren looked away from him. I smothered my grin as she looked at me seriously. “Can I trust that the two of you are done for the day? I assume you didn’t really want to kill each other.”

I nodded serenely at her. “I only _really_ want to kill Rhys a quarter of the time.” She sighed at my mock-seriousness.

“Yeah, well, if it’s only a quarter of the time than that’s double my tolerance for the both of you.” She rolled her eyes skyward as Rhys snorted in amusement. “I told Cassian that you wouldn’t really hurt each other. You’re mates.” She shook her head, short hair bobbing with the movement and the heavy necklace she was wearing glinting in the sun. “Neither of you are even bleeding.”

And then she turned sharply on her heel, muttering threats to Cassian under her breath as she stomped away, her tiny body rigid with irritation.

As soon as she had slammed the door to the townhouse, Rhys and I were grinning at each other again. “I guess it’s a draw then,” he said casually, his cheek pressed against the grass in a way that made everything around us pale in comparison.

Dammit, I had so many paintings of him in the works, but seeing him like this made me want to start another one. The way the grass contrasted with his tanned skin, the darker splotch of dirt on his cheekbone, the darkness of his hair clashing with the verdant green around him, and the way his deep, happy, violet eyes seemed to bring it all together.

“I love you,” I said, because I felt it. His lips, which had been relaxed, now widened into a full smile at my words.

“I love you, too,” he said immediately. “Even when you’re trying to kill me.”

I laughed and stood slowly, mindful of the slight aches my muscles were protesting with. When I stood by his side, casting a shadow over the planes of his face, he tilted his head to look up at me. Awe flashed down the bond, and I smiled at him, holding a hand out, the one with his tattoos tracing my fingers.

“You’re so damn beautiful, you know that?”

I smiled a bit more, letting my eyes close partway as golden pieces of hair fell down around my face, catching the light like woven gold.

“I don’t think I could ever forget, you remind me so often,” I said softly.

He placed his hand in mine, gripping my hand as I tugged him to his feet. Once he was standing, he pressed his lips against my cheek for a long moment before pulling away. “Good,” he said finally, his eyes dancing. “You should never forget it.”

He still hadn’t released my hand, and tugged me towards the house. “Let’s go and make sure Amren or Cassian don’t come out to make sure we’re not fighting again. Or having sex,” he added, then his eyes glimmered, his lips turning up cockily. “Although, I wouldn’t quite mind participating in the second one, even if both of them walked out to it.”

I laughed, allowing him to pull me towards the house. “I swear to the mother, you talk like such an exhibitionist, but the second anyone even walks by our room you pull the blankets up.”

He winked and reached back to put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him so i was leaning heavily against his side. “What can I say? I don’t want anyone else seeing you the way you look when I’m fu–”

“Alright,” I cut him off, my voice a bit higher than usual. I cleared my throat before continuing. “That’s enough of that talk. I, for one, am far too sore for any kind of physical exertion, even sex.”

He grinned, not missing a beat. “You know, I’m pretty sore too. I think you owe me a hot bath with a _long_  massage for pummeling me like that.”

“Hmm,” I hummed, leaning over to press a kiss to the skin bared at his neck. “And I think you owe me a _lot_  of paint and books for antagonizing me like that.”

He laughed under his breath, tipping his head to the side so his cheek rested on top of my head. I sighed, content, and wrapped an arm around his waist as we made our way back to the townhouse where, most likely, all of our friends awaited for a recap of our little battle.

“You know,” Rhys began softly, his breath shifting the hair on top of my head a bit. “It’s not such a bad thing to be driven by your emotions. If anger helps you learn, embrace it so that, one day, you’ll be able to master yourself without it.”

I tilted my head to look up at him. “I hate it when you’re right, you know.” He smiled, kissing me briefly before tucking my body up against his once again.

We were silent until we had reached the door, and Rhys paused before turning the knob.

“Just wait until I tell everyone that I pissed you off enough to make you turn into a fucking _wildcat_.”

I tipped my head back and laughed with him.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on tumblr! @illyrian-bitch-queen


End file.
